The hiring surge at package-delivery firms pushed payrolls there to a new high in July as companies geared up to handle the continued growth in online sales.

Courier and messenger companies added 3,200 jobs last month, the fourth straight monthly increase, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its July jobs report released Friday. Total employment at delivery firms reached 669,200, up from the previous high of 668,000 in December 2016 in a sector that has benefited from shifting consumer trends toward e-commerce and away from stores.

But hiring at warehousing and storage companies fell last month, cutting 2,200 jobs from June’s upwardly revised figure. Industry executives have reported difficulty in filling warehouse jobs, and the sector has added 33,500 jobs in the past year as companies including Amazon.comInc.AMZN -0.22% add distribution centers for online fulfillment.

Overall warehouse payrolls fell to 949,500 in July, from the June high of 951,700.

Manufacturing payrolls grew by 16,000 last month, when U.S. factory activity expanded for the 11th consecutive month, according to the Institute for Supply Management.

Trucking companies, whose business is closely tied to industrial demand, added 400 jobs in July as some carriers said they planned to boost their hiring this quarter.

Truckload carrier Schneider NationalInc.SNDR 0.95% plans to add 300 driver jobs, the company said in an earnings call this month. Adam Satterfield, chief financial officer at Old Dominion Freight LineInc.,ODFL -0.67% said in an earnings call last week that the carrier—which handles goods for multiple customers on each of its trucks—expects to add “a couple of hundred employees” this quarter after increasing payrolls by 1% in the second quarter even as shipments rose more than 5%.

Logistics industry employers are already ramping up hiring in advance of the holiday season. Amazon held job fairs at sites around the country on Wednesday aimed at filling 50,000 new positions, mostly at the e-commerce giant’s fulfillment and package-sorting centers.

“Demand is higher now than it was even in the peak season,” said Brian Devine, senior vice president at ProLogistix, one of the largest logistics-staffing companies in the U.S.

HomeTechnologyAmazon wants to install delivery lockers in your apartment building

Amazon

Over the past few years, Amazon has been on arelentlessmarch
to get into your house. And if the ecommerce giant has its way, even your apartment building’s lobby won’t be out of its reach.

This week, Amazon unveiled The Hub. Similar to the Amazon Lockers that have popped up in supermarkets and convenience stores around the country, the Hub is a delivery locker meant for apartment buildings and housing complexes.

Amazon

According to Amazon, the Hub will accept all deliveries – not just those from Amazon. When a resident is ready to pick up their package, they will enter their PIN at the Hub’s touch screen, and the locker containing their delivery will swing open.

Residents will be able to access their building’s Hub at any time. It is unclear what fee, if any, Hub users will need to pay, but Amazon is advertising it as a must-have amenity for any building or housing complex.

20 Jul Ecommerce Delivery: Setting and Meeting Customer Expectations

A recent article, “Study Finds Expectations Not Being Met in Ecommerce Delivery”, by Mike O’Brien of Multichannel Merchant describes the study results of a survey commissioned by Temando earlier this year. Not surprisingly, the study found that more than half the consumers would abandon their shopping cart if shipping costs were too high and 39% would abandon the cart if there were no free shipping. In addition, 43% of retailers have found that increased revenue could be driven through additional shipping choices.

Temando CEO, Carl Hartmann is quoted as saying, “Shipping is truly the last frontier for commerce, and retailers who master the use of technology to optimize the process are giving themselves the best chance to not only survive, but thrive in these trying times.”

While I agree with this statement, I would change the word “Shipping” to “Fulfillment.” Shipping is a critical component in meeting customer expectations, but the true customer expectation is the time from purchase to delivery, in other words, Fulfillment. It is in this realm where Amazon has set the standard for price/service performance. With over 100 fulfillment centers throughout the US, Amazon holds inventory close to its customers, enabling quick delivery. In addition, utilizing a wide spectrum of delivery carriers including UPS, regional carriers, USPS and their own drivers, they continue to evolve an efficient delivery process.

Competing with Amazon is no doubt difficult. But as Mr. Hartmann says “retailers who master the use of technology to optimize the process are giving themselves the best chance to not only survive, but thrive in these trying times”. In order to do this, there has to be a deep understanding of the current operation and the current customer experience. This understanding requires detailed information about the current processes, including order-to-ship time, ship-to-deliver time, inventory locations, back orders, and errors, as well as the expectation being set by the shopping site.

Using applications such as GrandCanals’ Fulfillment Intelligence Cloud will enable a clear understanding of your starting point. As the fulfillment processes are improved, metrics will track the results. As service improves and additional shipping options are added to improve cost and reliability, the shopping site can more accurately set the delivery expectation.

Using fulfillment data will aid in locating inventory, selecting service modes and carriers, establishing reliable delivery commitment and improving pick/pack operations. Amazon will continue to be a fearsome competitor but most eCommerce retailers can improve their fulfillment processes. The goal should be to identify the delivery date on the product page, provide a reasonable selection of delivery time/cost options and to eliminate statements such as “ships in 24-72 hours” with no indication when the order is to be delivered. Implementing these types of improvements will undoubtedly increase conversions and help drive top line revenue.

Let’s face it; Amazon is the Godfather of all ecommerce sites. It is not only the biggest online retailer in existence, it is one of the biggest retailers on the planet, and is the 4th largest company in existence, period. That is a lot of commerce. Since Amazon doesn’t have a single retail store anywhere in existence that has meant a whole lot of shipping over the years, which has helped many local delivery companies in many areas find new business.

Miami is the next great Metropolis to benefit from the benevolent online retail giant. Amazon has opened a new warehouse in Miami as part of its warehouse growth initiative to fulfill customer orders as quickly as possible. The company is expanding large warehouses into many regions in an effort to improve customer service, speed deliveries and to keep up with the incredible delivery demand that the company generates.

This means that many local delivery companies not only benefit from rush delivery orders, but they also meet new retail and ecommerce vendors that they can work with in the future. This can be a huge bonanza for local delivery companies, as many customers turn to Amazon for a number of reasons, such as:

Quick turnaround and delivery: Local delivery companies can help new warehouses fulfill their initiative as rapidly and effectively as possible.

Customers don’t visit the store, the store visits them: The ease of shopping from Amazon, especially on built in platforms in devices such as the Kindle, is conditioning people to expect and enjoy the benefits of online shopping and delivery. You can shop from the comfort of your own home. Once people get used to this they start ordering more delivered goods, leading to an increased need for local delivery services.

Ease of ordering: It is as simple as perusing a few pages, searching for what you want and clicking on it. Amazon even has single click, secured easy ordering options. Simply put no company makes it easier to order goods, which means that more people tend to buy and return for more.

Immediacy: With a local warehouse and a great local delivery service, a customer can have their order fulfilled in hours at a very affordable cost. So why fight with crowds or go out?

Free Advertising and Promotions: Local companies and ecommerce sites that use Amazon get free advertising and promotions through the company, plus built in SEO and branding opportunities that the company offers its partners. This can lead to more business and an even stronger need for an excellent local delivery service in the Miami area.

The delivery industry is booming more than ever before, and for quite obvious reasons. The digital age and specifically ecommerce sites have provided a tremendous amount of business for local delivery services. In fact, many companies are looking for cost effective, quick, dependable delivery services to keep customers happy and to try and keep up with the high volume of business that is flooding the market today.

Alacrity Package Delivery Service is a Miami delivery service that has gained incredible market share thanks to the ecommerce boom. They are always ready to handle more business, but the high volume of deliveries from the tremendous amount of good purchased online has exposed them as one of the best, most efficient delivery companies in the Greater Miami area. As any ecommerce business could tell you, an ecommerce or local business that ships a lot of goods can only be as successful as the delivery company that they hire.

Ecommerce companies are getting more business than ever before, and are slowly eliminating long standing brick and mortar stores. Why go shopping when you can shop at the same price from the comfort and safety of your own home? There’s no fuss, no crowds, and you can shop for what you want in minutes from the comfort of your favorite chair. But that requires the services of a great local delivery service.

Here are some prime examples of why local delivery services are booming, and why local businesses and good ecommerce sites need to find great local delivery services to partner with now.

Amazon – Amazon is the largest online retailer on the planet and is one of the 10 largest retailers PERIOD, without having one brick and mortar storefront. Far from the book exchange Amazon started as, the company boasts millions of customers and ships billions of dollars’ worth of merchandise each year.

EBay – This is the company that essentially started it all, offering a combination of bidding and selling platforms for anyone with anything to sell. Paypal was started to accommodate EBay transactions, and deliveries galore occur in many localities thanks to EBay.

Online Auctions – Who hasn’t heard of penny auctions? Online auctions account for many millions of dollars of shipping business each and every year.

Grocery Stores – That is correct, in many large cities people grocery shop online now, and the groceries are then delivered within hours. This is the trend of the future; soon virtual grocery stores will dominate the market.

Department Stores like Walmart and Target – These companies now ship nearly as much merchandise as they sell in their stores, accounting for tens of thousands of deliveries each and every day.

Local Ecommerce Stores – These are the companies that really need a great local delivery service to help them meet demand and grow market share.

While it might seem like a little thing, using a local delivery company can help you save money in a myriad of ways. Over time, the continued use of a local delivery company can add up to a good deal of savings. Aside from helping the local economy, using a local delivery company cuts costs in various methods. Here is a list of ways that using a local delivery company can help you save money over time:

Fuel: No driving to the store means no wasted gas. As we have all seen over the years gas can get quite expensive quite quick. Why waste gas money and wear and tear on your vehicle when you can very simply have goods delivered and save not only the cost but the time and the hassle as well. Isn’t the old saying ‘time is money’? Especially as gas and oil prices rise, the less you use your vehicle the more money you save, and using a local delivery company means that you are not wasting gas or oil.

Shipping charges: Local businesses mean that little to no shipping charges will be required for delivery. The further an item is shipped the more shipping and freight charges are incurred. These costs aren’t eaten by the seller or by the manufacturer of any good, they are passed on somewhere to the customer. By using local delivery services to deliver things from nearby, you are reducing or even eliminating expensive shipping charges, keeping your money in your pocket where it belongs.

Less Labor: The further that a package travels, the more people it will involve for delivery. By eliminating further travel you cut out the labor costs associated with a long trip. The goods don’t put themselves in a box or load themselves in a truck, label themselves or unload themselves. This means that people have to be paid to do these things. The more people that handle the package, the more people there are that have to be paid.

Eliminate cross-state taxes: You may not notice it but some states have higher sales taxes than others. Some states, like Oregon and Delaware, don’t eve’ have sales tax. But you could still be taxed on goods, or taxed on goods at a higher rate, on goods that you buy that you have shipped to you from long distance. Local shipping on local goods eliminates the possibility of cross state taxes or fees that can quickly add up.

Help the local economy, which in the long run helps you: This is not something that immediately puts dollars back into your bank account, but over time it can add up to a good deal of savings. Using local businesses and local delivery services means that you are putting money back into the local economy, which means you are helping to raise the standard of living. Over time that will mean a better quality of life for you and your loved ones, as basic economy 101 shows that a buoyant local economy tends to be good for the entire community.

If you are looking for a package delivery company in Miami you can trust, then call Alacrity Delivery. Alcrity offers express package delivery to all of the tri-county area.

E-commerce has turned parcel delivery into the hottest logistics sector. Parcel volumes rose 6 percent last year as online retailers flooded delivery networks with small packages destined for individual consumers in their houses, apartments, offices, and dorm rooms. The surge shows no sign of abating as volumes rose 3 percent in early 2017, and forecasters predict parcel shipping revenues will climb to $93 billion by 2019 from $78 billion in 2015.

Kudos to the authors for choosing the verb “flooded” to describe how small packages have overwhelmed delivery networks in recent years, especially those of UPS and FedEx. And if the forecasters are correct, the floods will continue…

…which is why UPS on Mondayannounced“a new peak charge applicable during selected weeks in November and December 2017 for U.S. Residential, Large Packages and packages Over Maximum Limits. The new charge is designed to enable UPS to continue to provide best-in-class value to customers while offsetting some of the additional expenses incurred during significant volume surges.”

How much additional expenses is UPS incurring? About $4 billion this year to automate more package-sorting hubs and open new warehouses, asreportedin theWall Street Journal.

According to the press release, “from November 19 through December 23, UPS will also apply peak surcharges to Large Packages [$24 surcharge] and packages that exceed maximum size limits [$249 surcharge]. These charges are in addition to normal surcharges applicable to such packages. When shipping packages that exceed UPS’s published maximum size limits, customers are encouraged to consider using UPS Freight.”

What will be the impact of all these new charges? “The fees will force retailers to decide over the next few months whether to raise shipping prices—something that is difficult to do when online shoppers are reluctant to pay shipping fees—increase the prices of goods or eat the extra costs themselves,” writes Paul Ziobro from theWall Street Journal. “Some may seek to avoid the surcharges by spreading holiday deals to other weeks during the season.”

We could also see more consumers opting for (or more retailers pushing consumers toward) click-and-collect. As Ziobro writes, “the charges apply only to residential deliveries, so retailers and shoppers may be able to avoid the charges by getting orders shipped to stores, an option retailers have been pushing for the past few years with varying success.”

What will FedEx do? Probably thank UPS for taking the lead and implement its own surcharges too.

What will Amazon do? It will continue to lose money on shipping ($7.2 billion in 2016) and not care as long as the profits from its Amazon Web Services division continue to pay for it. Check out these charts from GeekWire:

What will you do? Now that’s the hardest question.

Will we as consumers be willing to pay more for shipping? Probably not, that ship has sailed a long time ago. Amazon Prime, which has about80 million members in the United States, has conditioned many of us to expect free 2-day shipping.

The options Ziobro highlights in his article are all valid options: try to shift demand to non-peak weeks and/or entice more customers to choose click-and-collect as a delivery option.

You can try to offset the increased shipping costs by becoming more efficient in other parts of your logistics operations — e.g., are you missing opportunities to consolidate orders into a single shipment? Are you still shipping lots of air? Can you simplify and automate your pick and pack operations?

The bottom line is that free shipping is costing more, and as parcel shipping continues to grow and small packages continue to flood delivery networks, somebody has to pay the bill. UPS is basically saying, “I’m done holding this bill, it’s time for all of you to chip in.”

Is Walmart’s new last-mile delivery program brilliant — or a disaster in the making?

Author

Published

June 14, 2017

Walmart store associates may be coming soon to shoppers’ doorsteps.

Walmart announced earlier this month that it was testing a new delivery method — one that has store associates making deliveries on their way home from work. Marc Lore, president and CEO of Walmart U.S. e-commerce, pointed out on the company’s blog that 90% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a Walmart store. Product is already being delivered to stores and associates can sign up each day to take packages to their final destination and earn a little extra money.

“Walmart has strength in numbers with 4,700 stores across the U.S. and more than a million associates,” Lore said. “Now imagine all the routes our associates drive to and from work and the houses they pass along the way.”

While the program is currently being tested at three stores — two in New Jersey and one in Arkansas — the system is an example of how multichannel merchants can further leverage their installed store base to compete with Amazon, its network of distribution centers, and a growing fleet of delivery options.

“This effort provides Walmart with even more control over the last mile, which we believe is critical in retail, and remains an advantage for brick-and-mortar retailers as speed to the customer gains increasing importance,” Moody’s Lead Retail Analyst Charlie O’Shea told Retail Dive in an email.

But while Lore’s technology-based approach and Walmart’s many stores may be up to the challenge, it’s an extremely complex endeavor that doesn’t quite fit with Walmart’s longtime efficiencies in consumer goods distribution, which entails the customer taking care of that last mile. The program is either an ingenious attempt to address last-mile delivery problems — or terribly misguided, depending on who you talk to.

Do you see Walmart’s use of employees to make deliveries on their way home from work as a potential last mile game changer for the retailer?

What do you see as the benefits and potential pitfalls of this program?

Here are eight of the most provocative and insightful comments from the discussion. Comments have been edited by Retail Dive for length and clarity.

Mark Ryski, Founder and CEO, HeadCount Corp.: I’m not sure if it will ultimately be a game-changer, but full points to Walmart for thinking about the delivery challenge in a completely new way. One of the big benefits is in providing employees an opportunity to earn additional income — essentially “Uberizing” employees’ commute home. Making the program voluntary is an important element of the program since not all employees will want to do this. And if this gets customers their deliveries sooner, that’s great too. Of course there are plenty of ways this could go wrong, but I’m sure Walmart will stress test the idea thoroughly before it gets too far. Overall, I think this is a great example of how innovation doesn’t always need to be just about technology.

Mel Kleiman, President, Humetrics: I am not a lawyer but all I see is a major liability problem for Walmart if one of those employees has an accident on the way to delivering an order. How are the workers going to be compensated for time and mileage?

Steve Montgomery, President, b2b Solutions, LLC: The concept sounds simple but as with many things the devil is in the details. An employee who is driving home from work is off the clock and no longer being paid by Walmart. However, if they are delivering packages for the company they would be eligible for compensation. If the time delivering the packages bumps them up to the number of hours to be considered full-time they would be eligible for the benefits that come with that status. If the delivery time took them over 40 hours, overtime would have to be paid. As an employee on the clock is Walmart still legally responsible for their actions?

Some other details would be: does the driver get paid mileage, who is responsible if they have an accident and what happens if the packages get damaged, stolen or lost in transit?

Charles Dimov, Director of Marketing, OrderDynamics: Game changer — no. Innovative? Definitely. Kudos to Walmart for looking at ways to improve and strengthen their service offering while improving their margins. Presuming they will pay their employees a benefit for doing this last mile delivery, it is another great way to tap into their own resources to drive the holistic benefits of omnichannel retail.

In fact, at a time when so many retailers have been closing their physical presence, this type of out-of-the box thinking needs to happen more with retailers. This empowers employees to make a difference that can count in supporting the company and their important roles. Well done Walmart — keep surprising us!

Art Suriano, CEO, The TSi Co.: Think back to the days of when in the ’50s and ’60s. We had the bread man, the milk man, the egg man and much more all making home deliveries. There was more than just a purchase of an item and payment; there was a relationship formed with the customer and the delivery person. I see the same benefit here with many of the store associates delivering items to customers. If they are well trained and engage with the customers they meet, this could be very beneficial for all parties involved.

Christopher P. Ramey, President, Affluent Insights & The Home Trust International: Independent and/or small businesses owners (and employees) have always delivered products “on the way home.” Why not? Employees will like it because they get out of the store earlier. They’ll also, if they carefully manage it, keep count on mileage for tax purposes. Management will enjoy leveraging a key differentiator: feet on the street to serve clients.

The delivery industry is booming more than ever before, and for quite obvious reasons. The digital age and specifically ecommerce sites have provided a tremendous amount of business for local delivery services. In fact, many companies are looking for cost effective, quick, dependable delivery services to keep customers happy and to try and keep up with the high volume of business that is flooding the market today.

Alacrity Package Delivery Service is a Miami delivery service that has gained incredible market share thanks to the ecommerce boom. They are always ready to handle more business, but the high volume of deliveries from the tremendous amount of good purchased online has exposed them as one of the best, most efficient delivery companies in the Greater Miami area. As any ecommerce business could tell you, an ecommerce or local business that ships a lot of goods can only be as successful as the delivery company that they hire.

Ecommerce companies are getting more business than ever before, and are slowly eliminating long standing brick and mortar stores. Why go shopping when you can shop at the same price from the comfort and safety of your own home? There’s no fuss, no crowds, and you can shop for what you want in minutes from the comfort of your favorite chair. But that requires the services of a great local delivery service.

Here are some prime examples of why local delivery services are booming, and why local businesses and good ecommerce sites need to find great local delivery services to partner with now.

Amazon – Amazon is the largest online retailer on the planet and is one of the 10 largest retailers PERIOD, without having one brick and mortar storefront. Far from the book exchange Amazon started as, the company boasts millions of customers and ships billions of dollars’ worth of merchandise each year.

EBay – This is the company that essentially started it all, offering a combination of bidding and selling platforms for anyone with anything to sell. Paypal was started to accommodate EBay transactions, and deliveries galore occur in many localities thanks to EBay.

Online Auctions – Who hasn’t heard of penny auctions? Online auctions account for many millions of dollars of shipping business each and every year.

Grocery Stores – That is correct, in many large cities people grocery shop online now, and the groceries are then delivered within hours. This is the trend of the future; soon virtual grocery stores will dominate the market.

Department Stores like Walmart and Target – These companies now ship nearly as much merchandise as they sell in their stores, accounting for tens of thousands of deliveries each and every day.

Local Ecommerce Stores – These are the companies that really need a great local delivery service to help them meet demand and grow market share.

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co.’s customer support division is quickly increasing an on-demand components supply enterprise that reduces the time sellers — and clients — have to attend for brand new brakes, hoses or filters from the manufacturing unit.

Known as Sizzling Shot categorical supply, the service permits sellers or unbiased restore outlets to name for a particular half and have it dropped off inside two hours. Sellers get the components from Ford distribution facilities, whereas independents get them from different Ford sellers.

Ford has supplied Sizzling Shot to its sellers since 2015 as a option to slash wait occasions at service facilities, officers say, though some sellers might have established their very own categorical components supply service previous to the event of the Ford program. Because the program’s formal introduction, the variety of sellers concerned has risen to 300, or roughly 10 p.c of the automaker’s complete community.

“This is only one extra device we’re placing within the sellers’ palms to assist them service their clients,” Andrew Loafer, supervisor of wholesale operations on the Ford customer support division, advised Automotive Information. “The underlying cause is that we need to enhance our buyer expertise.”

Harry Hollenberg, associate at consulting and analysis agency Carlisle & Co., mentioned the pattern can also be about stopping sellers from taking their enterprise to sooner third-party components suppliers equivalent to Napa or AutoZone and sticking with the OEM.

“That is about capturing elevated market share, however that is secondary to improved customer support,” he mentioned.

Identical-day service is a pattern only some automakers are adopting.

“Usually talking, the quickest you will get an element is subsequent day,” Hollenberg mentioned.

Toyota and BMW provide same-day components, he mentioned.

Volkswagen Group of America is monitoring rivals who provide same-day service, however the group’s components boss has mentioned he is skeptical the advantages outweigh the prices.

Sellers can join the Ford service and are accountable for paying for a devoted Sizzling Shot driver and supply car. Loafer declined to debate prices.

Loafer mentioned the recognition of the service has grown lately as a result of folks count on immediate gratification because of on-demand leisure or different retail providers.

A typical components supply includes vehicles filled with the identical sort of half. However generally, Loafer mentioned, outlets cannot be sure of demand, so that they keep away from stocking massive numbers.

Sizzling Shot permits them to order a single half at a time, typically a number of occasions a day.

Hollenberg mentioned the a number of deliveries for particular person components might make enterprise sense, relying on the automaker and supplier.

“Sellers solely have a lot room, and with some components they solely promote a number of a yr,” he mentioned. “There is not any method the supplier’s ever going to have all the pieces he wants on the shelf.”

Some sellers, equivalent to Village Ford in Dearborn, Mich., make 20 to 30 Sizzling Shot orders a day.

“These deliveries are going to 40 totally different clients together with different sellers and unbiased outlets,” Andrew Kochan, components supervisor for Village Ford, mentioned in a press release. “All are happy with the service and lots of are amazed by our dedication to serving to them higher serve their clients.”

Any Motorcraft- or Omnicraft-branded half is on the market by way of the service, however Loafer mentioned most orders are for high-volume objects equivalent to brake pads.

ABOUT US

More and more, people from all over South Florida depend on Alacrity Delivery Services, Inc. to get their packages delivered on time. From small packages to large cargo, Alacrity provides both professional courier services and deliveries throughout Miami-Dade, Broward, and West Palm Beach Counties. What sets us apart from the rest is our special combination of fast and dependable delivery, friendly and professional customer service, and low rates.